The proliferation of the Internet has resulted in a thriving electronic commerce industry, where more and more products and services are available to consumers from e-commerce websites. In traditional online consumer-merchant transactions, consumers typically provide merchants with transaction numbers (e.g., charge card numbers) from their existing debit, credit or other transaction/service cards (e.g., American Express®, VISA®, MasterCard®, Discover Card®, etc.). However, to obtain such transaction numbers, a consumer typically must have a prior bank or credit card company affiliation, wherein the bank or credit card company retains identifying information, such as name, address, birth date, and credit history about the consumer. Thus, purchasers without bank or credit card company affiliations, such as teenagers, international visitors, and students, and those who cannot acquire credit may be limited with respect to online purchases.
Moreover, transmission of transaction numbers over the Internet via traditional means has created increased opportunities for fraud. For example, it is possible for these numbers to be intercepted during transmission, after transmission, while being stored electronically or at the merchant's online or offline location. In traditional online purchases, a consumer often browses the Internet for items to purchase. When the consumer finds an item that he or she is interested in purchasing, the consumer typically selects the item to add to a virtual shopping cart. When the consumer has finished shopping, and desires to purchase an item, the consumer usually proceeds to a virtual checkout, where the consumer is prompted for payment and delivery information. The consumer then typically is required to enter the appropriate delivery and credit card information, where the consumer enters the credit card number directly from the consumer's physical credit card and enters personal billing information relating to the credit card. This information is then transmitted electronically to the merchant via a public internet network. Although the transmission is often encrypted, there exists the possibility that the information will be intercepted enroute to the merchant. More likely, however, is that the information will be fraudulently used by an unscrupulous third party, such as a dishonest employee of the merchant, who may be able to assume the identity of the consumer with this information.
For more information on transaction systems, electronic commerce systems, digital wallet systems and loyalty systems, see, for example, the Shop AMEX™ system as disclosed in Ser. No. 60/230,190 filed Sep. 5, 2000; the MR as Currency™ and Loyalty Rewards Systems as disclosed in Ser. No. 60/197,296 filed on Apr. 14, 2000, Ser. No. 60/200,492 filed Apr. 28, 2000, and Ser. No. 60/201,114 filed May 2, 2000; a digital wallet system as disclosed in U.S. Ser. No. 09/652,899 filed Aug. 31, 2000; a stored value card as disclosed in Ser. No. 09/241,188 filed on Feb. 1, 1999; a system for facilitating transactions using secondary transaction numbers as disclosed in Ser. No. 09/800,461 filed on Mar. 7, 2001; and also in related provisional applications Ser. No. 60/187,620 filed Mar. 7, 2000, Ser. No. 60/200,625 filed Apr. 28, 2000, and Ser. No. 60/213,323 filed May 22, 2000, the general technology of all references is hereby incorporated by reference. Other examples of online membership reward systems are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,774,870, issued on Jun. 30, 1998, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,009,412, issued on Dec. 29, 1999, along with other incentive award programs described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,774,870 and 6,009,412, issued to Thomas W. Storey and assigned to Netcentives, the general technology of all references is hereby incorporated by reference. Additional information relating to smart card and smart card reader payment technology is disclosed in Ser. No. 60/232,040, filed on Sep. 12, 2000, and U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,742,845; 5,898,838 and 5,905,908, owned by Datascape; the general technology of all references is hereby incorporated by reference. Information on point-of-sale systems and the exploitation of point-of-sale data is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,832,457, issued on Nov. 3, 1998 to O'Brien et al., the general technology of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
Accordingly, a need exists for a method and system of facilitating anonymous online purchase transactions. In addition, a need exists for a method and system of facilitating online purchases with a reduced risk of fraud to the consumer.